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Back to the Future Doc and Marty with Flux Capacitor

Is it a Gigawatt or a Jigawatt?

Posted on December 26, 2021January 28, 2022 By dplivingston_au782a

We all know what Doc Brown said in the first movie. “I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need”. But he pronounced gigawatts as if it were spelled with a “j”, as in jigawatts (or jigowatts).


Being an electrical engineer, I had heard the prefix “Giga” pronounced many times before, but always with the hard “g” sound, as in gigabyte.

I always figured that the word “Jigawatt” was made up just for the movie and meant to sound like a really large amount. It wasn’t unit I started researching this Flux Capacitor Replica project that I stumbled across a few references to the actual term. It turns out that the original pronunciation of “Giga” was with a “j” sound (really a soft “g”).

Looking at the entry on Merriam-Webster.com they give two valid pronunciations ji-g-wät and gi-g-wät . They even have a neat audio clip of each being spoken.

I am certainly happy that they used the original, older sounding pronunciation of the word since the story involved time travel and Doc Brown conceived of the Flux Capacitor on November 5th in 1955 after slipping and hitting his head on the toilet.

Ironically, most references point to the early 1960’s as the first time the term was used. That’s okay at the start of the film as it’s set in 1985, but in 1955, the younger Doc Brown should have said “1.21 gigawatts? What’s a gigawatt Marty?

The saying over the years has taken on a life of its own. I’ve heard people say it without even knowing where it came from. What’s even more fun is the debate that follows on whether a gigawatt is an actual term. People would rather debate the pronunciation of the word then ponder the possibilities of time travel. Here’s hoping for a Back to the Future 4. Let’s make it a reality while we still can.
So, how much is 1.21 gigawatts you ask? Well, a gigawatt is equal to one billion (10 9) watts or 1 gigawatt = 1000 megawatts. If your typical 100 watt incandescent light bulb (at least what used to be typical before they outlawed them here in the US) draws 100 watts of energy, 1.21 gigawatts would be able to light over 12 million 100 watt light bulbs. 1.21 gigawatts is also equivalent to 1,621,400 horse power.

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BTTF - Flux Capacitor Tags:1.21 Jigawatts, BTTF, Gigawatt, Jigawatt, pronounced gigawatts, pronounced Jigawatts

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